Digital Single Market

DSM blog post

Thursday, 14 July, 2016

EuCNC2016: 5G from dawn towards deployment

“The Dawn of 5G”, this year's jubilee edition of EuCNC

Published Thursday, 14 July, 2016

Updated Friday, 15 July, 2016

This year's jubilee edition (25th anniversary) of EuCNC, (European Conference on Networks and Communications) was around the theme of “The Dawn of 5G” and took place on 27 June – 30 June in Athens. EuCNC is supported by the European Commission and has its roots in the EU's Third Research and Innovation Framework programme. It has become the annual rendezvous of all EU-financed research projects in the telecom domain and has expanded to include high-level international research projects, gathering the worldwide research and innovation community in the field of communication networks and systems.

This year’s conference showcased 80 scientific papers published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library delivering full text access to the world's highest quality technical literature in engineering and technology. More than 500 participants, 32 demonstration booths, 48 scientific posters, 10 special sessions and 10 themed workshops contributed to the success of the event. What a great pleasure to see again a plethora of motivated researchers working together to reach the most ambitious vision of 5G in Europe and beyond! The conference has clearly shown that it has the high quality level required to attract prominent figures in the 5G domain, such as high-level keynotes from the US and from China.

And indeed EuCNC is more global than ever! I was so excited to see that this year more than 15% of the participants came from outside Europe, contributing significantly to the global discussions on 5G. A strong international cooperation offers us a key instrument to work in-depth on major issues like spectrum and standards in the era of the global challenges of the digital age. EuCNC was the right forum to put in place such world-wide discussions involving new technologies, new actors and new business models.

The Phase I high quality projects (19), which were launched during last year's EuCNC, were showcased these days in Athens and have already started to provide significant results, in line with the strategic roadmap of our 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP). In Europe, we have already moved beyond the 5G vision, and we are moving towards architectures, testbeds, demonstrations and implementation. As we progress with the implementation of the European 5G Research, we will have extended opportunities to demonstrate at scale the most demanding performance requirements of 5G together with the vertical sectors. The 5G Action Plan for Europe – which the Commission will present in September – is the right tool to develop a common strategy for 5G deployment and to push standards and cooperation with industries and sectors which will use 5G products and services, in the right direction. The recently published 5G Manifesto presents the industry's vision and input into the 5G Action Plan.

I am already looking forward to attending the EuCNC 2017 which I am sure will bring more 5G exciting results and more key players from the area of advanced networks. It will take place on June 12 – 15, 2017 in Oulu, Finland.